Do You Homeschool During the Holidays?

This Christmas brought two sneaky homeschool gifts to my son: one which he himself asked for and one which was given to him as not per see as a “gift”, but just because DH was going through a box of old things. Both though have caused DS to “do work”.

My F-I-L thought my son was insane when asked what he wanted to for Christmas, the answer was two three ring binders and plastic inserts. My F-I-L asked quizzically, “Are you sure?” and DS surely was. He was thrilled when he opened his box at our Christmas dinner and this was certainly one of the first gifts that he used (aside from his Nerf Gun).

DS’s plan with these books is to create a Cast Iron Cookbook and to start putting together his Eagle Scout Book. DS loves cast iron cooking, but is frustrated when pushed to think quickly and plan a menu for scouts. His plan is to begin compiling his favorite Cast Iron recipes so that he can just grab his cookbook for both planning meetings and for campouts. This has encouraged him to read carefully to choose the recipes; use the computer to cut, paste, and alter the recipes to the proper size; and to use his organizational skills to put the book together.

The other “gift” was my DH’s old palm pilot. DS has been addicted to it; putting in emergency phone numbers, writing to lists, and filling in the calendar. DS has been checking his spelling on every word he types in. This boy that I have to force to write a sentence has to have the stylus taken away in order to eat dinner. If I had known it would be this easy, I would have bought one of these machines for him. Now, I’m thinking, perhaps I’ll set him up on Facebook too. If it is technology that intrigues him, then I’ll find a way to use it.

So needless to say DS enjoyed his Christmas and mom is feeling a little better about the “time off”.

Child Centered Learning - From Leaf to Maple Syrup to Gum

When you homeschool you always have to be ready to change direction and follow the learning. This is why I was always a fan of open classroom. Teachers need to have the ability to move where the interest of the kids goes. If a ladybug flies in and the kids want to learn about ladybugs, you should be able to adjust. This is not such an easy task when you are tied down by curriculum and checked by standardized tests. At home, you can go where ever you are drawn (Homeschooling Hint #1).

Yesterday, for example, as I worked in the kitchen and DS read his science pages diagramming the leaf and stem, we were led us in other directions. We suddenly had to put celery in dyed water to better see the xylem and phloem. We had challenge questions about maple syrup – do you think we tap the xylem or phloem and why? (I should tell you that DS has memorized which is up and down by using the pneumonic device – phloem sounds like flow. You flow down. Therefore Xylem is up / phloem down. I was amazed at how well he understood the application. Maple syrup making was something that he understood and could relate to. We do it. We discussed why we could not over tap a tree. This used to be just a rule that we had to follow, but now he understood why we couldn’t do that. ) We compared this idea to cuts on a human body. Then something in this suddenly spurred off a question about gum. And while I did not have the answer, we did come over the computer when we finished. I had him write “Bubble Gum” on the last page we were reading so that we wouldn’t forget and so that he could take the distracting thought out of his head.

When we finished, I found a great little explanation on the making of gum on the Glee Gum site. (Actually, I tried to get DH to help him so that I could get dinner done and get to choir, but I immediately heard him tell him to Google “Bubble Gum”. I tried to intervene to encourage DH to add “for kids” or “how to make bubble gum”, but he said that it will bring up Wikipedia and he can get his answer there. Homeschooling hint #2 for the day, work to strengths not weaknesses. As I have mentioned, reading is very hard for DS especially when DH has the tv on in front of him. So I interceded, tried to help him with Wikipedia and then did my own search which came by this site which was much more visual with some reading. It not only was clearer to DS, but also encouraged him to read in short blurbs. )

“While it is helpful to have a map of where you are planning to go; don’t be afraid to follow an interesting diversion. You can always get back to the main road later. Maybe you will even find a short cut.” me

Which of the Following States is in One Time Zone?

Remember me talking about Nautilus learning and how you add layers - Ironically, we had a microcosm of this idea this weekend.

On the train ride back, one of the girls started playing "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" (teaching with technology - Imagine if we sent quizzes / refreshes that way). Anyway one of the questions was "Which of the following states is in one time zone?

Oregon
Oklahoma
Indiana
Kansas"

The problem with this game on the girl's phone is that when you get the answer wrong. It doesn't give you the correct answer - so we were left wanting - TWICE!

Flash forward to today, DS was doing his MATH. What is the math about? Traveling across the country. What is the picture at the top of the page? A time zone map of the US. What is the correct answer to the question? Oklahoma.

To brush up on other useless trivia:

Applying Newton's Laws

Physics and the laws of motion can be interesting and fun. They can creep up at the strangest times. If you watched the Lego version of the Newton’s three laws then you are already familiar with the laws, so you may be able to dissect it better than I.

As we are doing our work up at DH’s office, DS pushed his chocolate milk bottle with his pen. As expected the bottle moved forward (little push = little motion) but then interestingly, the bottle took a little extra jump as the milk continued in motion after the bottle had stopped. Then it finally came to rest (inertia) having expended all its energy.

See this little experiment shows exactly what I say – lessons and learning are everywhere, you just have to be ready / interested enough to explore them. I’m sure bottle of milk are being pushed in cafeterias around the country right now. How many do you think are discussing Newton’s Laws?

Fun Fact Friday - I'm not a label. I am a child.

One of the great things about homeschooling is that your child can be a child and not a label. Teaching / Learning is based on their strengths not their weaknesses.

"Nationally, 1.6 to 2 million people have been diagnosed with ADD and ADHD."
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/10/20/news/11159.shtml


"ADHD was first described by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman in 1845."
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd/nimhadhdpub.pdf


This truly surprised me, because I had always heard differently:


"The main finding was that the variation in prevalence associated with the samples’ geographic origin did not fit a pattern consistent with the notion that ADHD is a byproduct of American culture. The North American rate (6.2%) only slightly exceeded the European rate (4.6%). The highest rates emerged from Africa (8.5%) and South America (11.8%). Corroboration comes from a dimensional ADHD scale used in 21 countries. Japanese and Finnish children scored lowest, Jamaican and Thai children scored highest, and American children scored about average (7)."
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/164/6/856

“Dyslexia, a reading disorder that persists despite good schooling and normal or even above-average intelligence, (is) a handicap that affects up to 1 in 5 schoolchildren in the U.S.”

“"The majority of students who get identified with learning disorders get identified between the ages of 11 and 17," says Robert Pasternack, Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education.”

“Dyslexics are also more likely than nondyslexics to end up in prison. According to Frank Wood, a professor of neurology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, new research shows that children with dyslexia are also more likely to drop out of school, withdraw from friends and family or attempt suicide.”

My Comment: I found this comment interesting, it leads me to question if the causes of dyslexia causes these affects as well OR is it the social – emotional issues that arise because someone exhibits the symptoms of dyslexia. It would be an interesting study to compare the rates of prison and suicide with children that have dyslexia in the school system compared to the same rates of homeschooled children with dyslexia.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030908/story.html

"75% - 80% of special education students identified as LD have their basic deficits in language and reading; Source: National Institutes of Health"

"50% of all students in special education in the public schools have learning disabilities -- 2.25 million children; Source: U.S. Dept. of Education 1992"

My Comment: Does this lead anyone else to wonder that maybe this issue is our definition and not our children?
http://ldhope.com/statistics.html


The DSM diagnosis will qualify one for accommodations in school and in standardized testing such as on the GED Tests.

My Comment: And schools get more money for student’s identified as needing additional help – HMMMMMM! They give you a reason to be labeled and they received a financial benefit to have you labeled. Does anyone see a problem here?
http://www.floridatechnet.org/bridges/factsandstats.pdf

Passing the Hunter Safety Course

They did it. All three of them, my husband, daughter, and son, passed their hunters course. I expected my husband to. After quizzing my daughter, I was sure she was going to. But with all my DS’s reading issues, I just wasn’t sure. The test was 100 questions long: 50 true/ false, 50 multiple choice. Frankly, I wasn’t sure he would even make it through reading it all and I know a year and a half ago there is no way he could of. Today not only did he read it, he received an 84% on the test.

As any of you who homeschool know, we are all very confident on the outside about what we do, but inside we worry if we have made a mistake. This was a great test for me to see that they could both survive outside my extended womb.

Of course my husband points out that we have now just gotten both of our children certified to carry weapons, but I have been very pleased with both of their responsibility in this area. And as a mom who grew up without weapons around, I have been impressed with both their shooting ranges safety and now the hunter’s course safety focus. Also, I know they don’t have the combo to the safe.

Lessons During the Busy Times of Life

To those of you that are new to homeschooling, you may ask, “How do you homeschool on days when you are busy with other chores?” The answer is two fold. One, the reason we homeschool year round is to make up for days that we are unable to. Two, we look at the day using a broader interpretation of homeschooling to see what we learned.

When my children tell people that we homeschool year round, they often get looks of pity while I get glares. I usually quickly interject that I am no slave driver. By schooling a little everyday, we avoid having marathon sessions. Also, if something comes up and we miss our base lessons then I know that we can make it up on another day or relax and know that we do enough on the other days that I don’t have to worry.

Furthermore, as I believe that living is the best teacher, sometimes instead of planning lessons for the future, we look bak at what we did learn while living. With the vision of hindsight, you can often see that you learned far more than you could have with regular lessons. Accept the gift and record your achievement.

Any veteran homeschooler will tell you that home schooling is a misrepresentation of who most of us are doing. Schooling / learning happens everywhere and every day often without any planning or preparation.

Can you name the capitols of all the states? Can you name the states in order that your family drove through on their trip to Florida? Do you know the formula for calculating area of an irregular shape? Do you remember how you and your father figured out how much tile to buy for the bathroom floor?

Rebuilding Public Education

Today on Oprah, discussed the crisis in our educational system. She partnered with Time magazine to explore the drop out nation. She quoted a statistic that a student in the United States drops out every 9 seconds. Of course that was followed up by the fact that some schools can have up to a 75% drop out rate while others have a mere 1% rate. The difference was graphically depicted as two schools at opposite ends of the spectrum were toured. As a country, we should be appalled. Most of us would be enraged if these conditions existed in prisons, let alone schools. As a homeschool community, perhaps we should work with parents in these school districts to empower them. I’m sure not all would be interested, but I’m sure that some would.

One of the kids who had dropped out at 16 felt that school had not seemed relevant to him and did not realize how important the education was until after he had quit. The guests on the show seemed to imply that we should change the age at which students can quit.. They felt that certainly a 16 year old could not make decisions for themselves. More government oversight by an institution that already is causing these children to run away in droves Of course, as a homeschool parent I thought that perhaps if the education was presented in a more “real” life way that students would see the relevance. If they felt their knowledge had application, they would not be so board. While painting the walls and improving the gymnasium will improve the environment, I don’t think it will reduce the dropout rate with any significance.

It amazes me that the cost of education continues to rise and yet the overall quality reduces. Have we just created a behemoth, intent on growing itself? Perhaps as we think of a solution, we need to think radically different. As one of the growing and successful segments of education, perhaps some of the homeschooling ideas could assist in the newly devised system. Perhaps most importantly the role of the family as an integral part of plan.

The Mission of Missions

There is one week a year when no school books come out in our house: the week that we join our church on a trip to Kentucky on our annual mission trip. We opt to drive ourselves separately than the main group and join them down at Bonanza. Months before we go, I crawl the internet to find places for us to visit on the way down. The first years that we went, this was done out of necessity. With our children only being 6 and 8 at the time, the idea of a 15 hour car ride was not appealing to us. But now these diversions have become an exciting and informative part of our trip. Some of our favorite stops have been:

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center– Cincinnati, Ohio

Philadelphia – Where instead of following our plan we got wonderfully side tracked with the storytelling at the “Once Upon a Nation” stations (We have also since visited their stations at Valley Forge). We also loved the Lights of Liberty show that made the history come alive as we toured the city at night.

Gettysburg – We were lucky enough to catch a reenactment behind Boyds Bears.

Lancaster, PA – It was amazing to see buggies for real, sharing the road with us (I would love to live with them for a month to see if what I think of their society is what it is really like – I think that I could learn a great deal). We did learn one thing on this trip – Sunday is not the best day to visit – dUH! But who thinks of that when their real purpose is to get to Kentucky.

Carter Caves – We have found that we love Spelunking. Our trips have included Lurray Caverns and a couple others, but we really enjoyed Carter’s Caves and their 52 degree constant temperature was certainly welcome against the heat.

We have done tons of other things as well including DC, Zoo’s, other historical sites, but the above are our favorites.

When we get there and join our church, we spend the week building houses for the economically disadvantaged. The first year that we were there, we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker who explained to us how Appalachia became as we see it now. Our kids, while not understanding all the implications of signing away mineral rights on your land, were amazed at this different lifestyle. A true appreciation for all they had started to arise. Where we live, we may seem to be on the poorer side of the spectrum - - - my car is 12 years old, our house is only a raised ranch, their clothes don’t have labels on them all the time, but in the area of Kentucky we were in, we seemed wealthy beyond comprehension. Then the real work began. Although young, the kids were part of the crew and they were expected to work as such. They got to hammer and saw. They got to backfill foundations and lay in roof trusses. All the skills that they learned in school books suddenly had application – measurement, area, volume, angles, linear feet - - - created houses. They built houses.

During this one week, actually two if you count the travel to and from, we probably experience and learn more than in the other 51 weeks put together. Most importantly, they learn how truly blessed they are and that with their blessings, much is expected. Through their hands, God touches the world. Their hands help to bring heaven to earth. Their hands ease the difficulty of others. Their young hands are powerful. We have had to forgo this trip twice since then and we miss it greatly, but are thrilled to know that our church continues the mission.

What ways do you make learning real for your children?

The Frustration of Thinking Differently

Oh, my goodness. How do you teach a child whose mind works so much differently than yours? Sometimes when he is thinking, I wish I could take a magnifying glass and see what is going on in there. His mind works with such different gears than anything I’ve ever seen. It frustrates me to no end, but is also holds endless fascination for me. Ever since he was little he sees things that the rest of us don’t. If he shares his thoughts, then “aha!” we cry as we view for just an instant what he sees all the time.

I should have known how frustrating this would be way back when I tried to show him the idea of subtraction using grid paper. I tried to adapt to his visualization by using manipulatives. I cut out the number of squares in a long series to represent the first number, cut out another line of blocks to represent the other, and then place them one atop the other to show the difference between the two (like Cuisenaire rods). We would then cut the longer one so that the two rods were the same length and then count up the number of boxes in the cut off piece and there was the answer along with a visual representation of difference. But no, he had some way that he knew how to work it. He had no interest in looking at it the traditional way. I cannot even begin to show you his process because I still don’t understand it.

Today is this same battle just with a different part of math. He is working on division. The book has recommended that he round the divisor so that he can best begin to estimate his answer. Of course that just helps you to come up with a guess. You still have to multiply by the divisor and subtract, but he thinks it’s easier to multiply his guess by the approximation he used, calculate the difference between the approximation and the real divisor, multiply that by the guessed number, and then add or subtract as necessary to come up with the remainder. Gee, I wonder why he is frustrated . . .that is an awful lot to keep in your brain. I can’t seem to get him to understand that writing down the process of math is not cheating. I tried to show him that while this strategy may work with 628 / 23, it would be very difficult when we got to 6457 / 432 and that we were really focusing on the process of division not necessarily just the product (or in this case quotient). No, he insists that his way is better. After watching him struggle, I finally insisted that he did it the proper way and he completed the entire set of problems in just a couple of minutes. Of course I will admit that the most frustrating part is when he gets it right with his way of thinking and his explanation, while it may be the longest possible way to come to a solution, is correct.

Of course to compound the issue, he has to think – outloud. Now I don’t mean adding or subtracting outload. He has to hum or bang his pen or play with the walkie-talkies. He has to think with noise while I’m trying to type and the repetitious noise makes my brain want to explode. While I think silence does the same to his. He doesn’t like others to make noise, but he can sing an opera as he solves his problems. It is funny how we all have our different styles of learning. Clearly ours don’t line up that well. But on the otherhand, I cannot imagine what would happen to this child in public school.


“Genius . . . is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.” -Ezra Pound

Homeschooling - A Journey for the Whole Family

One of the great things about homeschooling is that it is not just how you educate the kids. It is a lifestyle for the whole family. Learning becomes a way of life for the family. The parents don’t always teach and the children aren’t always recipient of learning. It is a joint effort: A path that the whole family takes.

Today, for example, was a day for my son to do the teaching. During his time at Boy Scout camp, Jacob learned how to fly fish. Yesterday, he and my husband went to buy him a fly fishing starter kit with a gift card that my son had received. Jacob practiced his casting for a bit and then my husband wanted to try so Jacob started teaching him. It was a great sight to see, the two of them working together. We had planned on going for just an half an hour, but ended up there for two or more. It was peaceful and quiet. We had time to just chat.









When Jacob gave up the rod to George, Jacob warned him not to flick his wrist and crack the line. Jacob did a wonderful job showing how to move the rod with his full upper arm. George tried, but Jacob had to remind him again. No sooner was the warning out of his mouth, then crack, crack, the fly was gone. Jacob helped his father tie on a new one.




It was a wonderful day of learning and a successful day at that, the men caught two fish. I figure later in the week, I will take him to a stream to practice more.

The Nautilus of learning

Learning is not a linear operation. It is not like a book that you should begin on page one and follow through to the end. It is like a grape cluster. Does it matter which one you eat first? Actually, I visualize learning like a nautilus shell. We are first introduced to something new. Perhaps we learn the first few facts. Then we may go away and learn and do other things. Inevitably though, the idea comes back and we learn more. We continue in this pattern over and over, building on what we knew and acquiring more. This pattern actually makes the learning more memorable and relevant. The newly acquired information forces you to reenter all the previous chambers that you have built up. Each chamber relies on the one before and sets precedence for the one to come.

Consider this as you plan your lessons for your children. Be willing to do things “out of order”. It is ok not to understand things 100% the first time. As you build your shell, other encounters will help you better understand the information that you have already amassed. Perhaps it will be the not understanding of something that truly interests you that causes you to go back and learn about it, like a young lad who sees the rocketship streak across the sky and then chooses to study aeronautics, physics, engineering so that someday he can make one fly.

Like a beach our minds can be full of shells. Each at a different point of development. Some stacking one atop another. All waiting for us to pick them up.